Bellone, staff to contribute to health benefits

Claiming that Suffolk County ended 2011 with a budget deficit of more than $50 million, and staring down an even larger deficit for 2012, Bellone said he has been forced to resort to issuing a Revenue Anticipation Note, allowing the county to borrow up to $90 million against anticipated revenue. Suffolk County is only one of two counties in the state to issue such a note.

In order to close the budgetary gap, at least partially, Bellone, who stated he had taken a pay cut of $21,000 a year, said that he has frozen his staff’s salaries and ordered them to begin contributing between 15 and 25 percent toward the cost of their health insurance.

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“I am a big believer that leadership must come from the top and the best way to lead is by example,” Bellone said. “I will not ask others to make sacrifices or to do more with less without being willing to do so myself.”

Because exempt employees are hired outside of the typical civil service process, they do not belong to the Association of Municipal Employees union – the union representing the majority of the county’s workforce. As a result, the mandates can be implemented without union involvement.

While the union has no horse in the health care contributions scenario, it has great interest in the 400-plus layoffs Bellone will implement as of June 30.

“To our public employees, there is no doubt that these are difficult days,” Bellone said. “It is painful to see friends and colleagues lose their jobs as we are experiencing this year. But this experience should make us more determined than ever to work together to make the sacrifices necessary for Suffolk County to live within its means and avoid even more difficult cuts in the future.”

There was some hope for Suffolk’s financial future, Bellone noted.

One big source of revenue Bellone is banking on comes at the state level, where State Sen. Owen Johnson, R-West Babylon, and Assemblyman Steve Englebright, D-Setauket, have introduced legislation to authorize one video lottery terminal location in Suffolk. Bellone said the move would produce an estimated $40 million for county school districts, create hundreds of local jobs and produce more than $25 million in revenue for Suffolk County.

3 comments

Hard to believe there are still employees who don’t have to contribute to their employers’ group health insurance plans. Maybe they are the ones who think no one should have to buy health insurance if they don’t want to – they don’t see the financial impact on the insured when hospitals have to treat the uninsured.

If there’s a $50 Million shortfall, why is Bellone allowed to borrow up to $90 Million??? Sounds like his pulling a snake oil salesman job on Suffolk like he did in Babylon. TOB is still waiting for $42 Million plus or minus returned to businesses and homeowners for overpayment of garbage taxes. Where’s the beef, Mr. Bellone?

We will know something beneficial is being done when the Association of Municipal Employees agrees to its members paying their ‘fair share’ of their insurance and releases the joe public from ‘defined benefits’ packages of employment that we cannot afford.

Bellone is applauded for freezing gov’t employee salaries in his office and having them pay 15 to 25% of the insurance benefits. But let’s see it…in writing…where?

County employees are not the only ones not paying into health care. Check out the school districts. Many school district employees aren’t paying into their health care either. You want to attack one – attack all.

While the private sector employees paid for health benefits and reaped gobs of money from a prospering economy they said nothing. Now that the economy has tanked it’s all of a sudden the public employees fault? I beg to differ. Public employees took a lower salary to have the benefits package. Private sector employees could’ve too, but chose to run to the money. While the private sector employees got 8 and 10% raises, the public employees chugged along getting 2%. It’s not the public employees fault the economy tanked. Don’t blame them. You think the guy out cutting the lawn for the Public Works Department is making a ton of money? Think again. The only public employees making tons of money are the police and school teachers.
Leave the other civil service workers out of it.